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Catching Up and Part 1 of Vacation Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were gone for a little under a month.  We enjoyed our time down south in the warm weather and sunshine.  We were able to do a lot of fun things that we only get to do once a year as well as enjoyed lots of Western food.  Here are some of the pictures from the first weeks of our trip. 

 

 

 

Evangelia's Baptism

For a little while now Ev has been learning more about who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him.  She has decided that she wants to follow Him and make Him the most important thing in her life.  We decided to wait until we were in Thailand at the house we are staying at to baptize her there with some family with us.  We are very excited for her decision.

Life

It has almost been a month since I posted last.  I could give a lot of excuses but it all really comes down to the fact that my day consist of home school in the morning, break for a quick lunch, then class for me for another couple of hours, then onto getting prepared for dinner, trying to work out, doing other things that I need to around the house, then dinner and cleanup, a little down time then the kid's bedtime.  I have been staying up too late trying to get more things done or watching TV with Todd.  I've always liked the time when the kids go to bed because I feel it is my only "me" time.   I haven't been able to study outside of class like I should be doing so I am glad to take a break from class for a month.  I've started looking ahead to next year when Ev will be in first grade and Elijah will be in Kinder and with Ian I am hoping to do some Preschool with him.  School for me is still in the schedule yet as I look to next year I don't know if it is really going to a possibility or not. 

Homeschooling this year has been different than I expected.  I knew going into it that it is very different from the classroom.  Home schooling is great that you can be more flexible but I have found that it seems that things always come up in our day and since we are at home we get interrupted more than I would like.   I have to really fight to protect our morning.  I have always loved that our kids sleep in late but as it is darker outside in the morning my kids don't want to get up.  I was finding in December that they were not getting up until after 9am.  I was feeling overwhelmed because by the time they ate their breakfast and really woke up it was closer to 10 and well I didn't have much time before my teacher came.  I began saying to them, "if you don't get to class on time then Mommy doesn't get to class on time."  For a few weeks my teacher was coming to me a half an hour early meaning she was showing up at noon. Teaching your own kids has its advantages and disadvantages.  Currently one child struggles with a few things while really being eager to learn.  Another child's learning style is so different to mine that it is challenging for me to understand whether this one is listening or messing around.  And then my other child wants to have a power struggle and not do anything for me.  It is hard being mom and teacher.  I am thankful that the kids have extracurricular activities.  My older two have Chinese class twice a week for a couple of hours and then Art class on a different day for a couple of hours.  They love their teachers and really thrive with them not only in a second language but it is good for them to have some one else teaching them. 

We are going to be taking a break in February when we travel out of the country for vacation.  I still have things planed for Ev to do but it won't be our normal routine.
I am looking forward to going to a home school conference that only Ev and I will be going to in February.  I have been feeling overwhelmed so hopefully I will be able to ask some questions and talk to other moms. 

I guess I am really ready for a break.  We'll rent a house with a pool and enjoy the warm weather for a couple of weeks, then Ev and I will go to another city for the conference and then meet up with the boys in another city where we will hang out with some friends of ours for a few more days.  

Advent Season and our Christmas Celebration

For Advent this year we continued some of our family traditions we started at the beginning of our marriage.  I made an advent calendar where each day their is a picture or figure of the part of Jesus' birth story that we are on.  Slowly through the month they learn/retell the story.  In addition to learning the birth of Jesus story we have pictures of different people groups up on our Christmas tree.  The kids pick one people group and for the month leading up to Christmas they pray for that people group. On the five Sundays leading up to Christmas we light our Advent candles and Todd leads us in worship.  Last year we focused on one Christmas song to teach the kids and this year we focused on another one.  We also spend time picking out gifts to give Jesus.  Last year we used Samaritan's Purse online gift catalogue also this year we bought clothes for a baby of a local friend who was in need of warm winter clothing.  The kid's picked out buying a well for a village in need of water, buying blankets for the needy, and buying clothing and food for orphans.  Instead of opening presents on Christmas we throw a big birthday celebration for Jesus and give Him our gifts.  The kids woke up to balloons and banners for Jesus' birthday party.  I had found a few games and coloring sheets and activities for them to do.  This year the kids were the shepherds and I made them a scavenger hunt through the house to find the manger and baby Jesus.  Along each stop they had to answer questions relating to the birth of Jesus.  Todd had found a video and some coloring sheets on the people groups the kids had been praying for so we had a time where the kids watched these videos and talked more about the need for these people to know Jesus.  I made a lasagna for lunch and we also had a cookie cake to celebrate Jesus' birthday.  The kids spent the rest of the day playing "Mary and Joseph" and all of the things we did helped us focus only on Jesus.  With the kids being young it is fun to see their excitement as they enjoy the activities and celebrate Jesus' birth. 

Decorating for Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving we enjoyed watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade that Todd recorded for us as we decorated our Christmas tree.  I bet you didn't know that little Indians can do such a good job! :) They loved their outfits so much that they wore them again all weekend.   With the help of a friend who had come up from a city a few hours away we rearranged the living room to make room for our tree.  I'll have to take pictures of the finished product, after these few pictures our camera battery died.

As a family the month before Christmas is very special to us.  For our first Christmas together Todd and I started a family tradition of celebrating Advent.  It has evolved through the years as we've added children to our family and as they are getting older we can really do more in depth things.  Also because we live overseas we can really shape what our kids experience and learn through the holidays.  I think last year was the best Christmas experience ever.  We taught the kids about why Jesus came to earth and slowly told and taught them His birth story.  And we lead up to Christmas by praying for unreached people groups, letting the kids pick out gifts from Samaritan's Purse online catalog and we ended with a huge birthday party celebration on the 25th.  For us we chose not to open any presents but to focus the whole day on celebrating Jesus.  The kids made Him a birthday card and birthday hats which turned into being Wise Men hats.  They went on a scavenger hunt through the house answer questions of Jesus' birth story to get to the next spot all searching for Jesus.  They were dressed up as Wise men carrying a gift bag that had their present they had picked of from the catalog written on a piece of paper inside.  The end of the hunt our "three wise men" found the star and baby Jesus.  They were so excited and felt like they had traveled far to find Jesus.  Their faces and expressions showed us that they really got it.  The best part of the day was that no one asked once about the presents under our tree. We really want to teach them that it isn't about presents, Christmas is about Jesus. 

Thanksgiving 2012

We had 19 people for Thanksgiving this year.  Each year my turkey keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Since my kitchen sink isn't as deep as my old one we had to take the turkeys to the bathtub to thaw them.  The kids were excited to see the turkeys taking a bath!

Our friends came over just before noon and most of them stayed until 7pm.  We had our slingbox on with football for the kids we had Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and the ladies stayed around the kitchen table and talked.  We did end up bringing out Catch Phrase and the adults enjoyed that as we at another round of food.

It snowed all day so we had a white Thanksgiving.  It is great to have friends to be with on holidays and since we are so far from home it is like our friends are our family.  We are very thankful for the people the Father has put in our lives here and in America.

Last year the kids I made the kids Pilgrim clothing and this year I made them Native Americans.  Todd found the bow and arrows and we gave them to all of the little kids.  Everyone enjoyed shooting arrows!